Impermissible as a social knowledge structure: an empirical sketch on the example of Kharkovites’ perception

The article analyzes the knowledge structures of Kharkov residents on the example of judgments about permissible and unacceptable. Using the conceptualizations of Z. Freud, M. Mauss, E. Durkheim, J. Baudrillard, S. Zizek, the author performs a retrospective analysis of sociological developments in the area of prohibited, unacceptable and correct. Based on the methodology of “synthetic” theories (primarily P. Bourdieu), as well as the developments of phenomenology (P. Berger, T. Luckmann), theories of consciousness (J. R. Searle), the theories of the sacred (Collège de Sociologie and others), the author explores the inner structure, content and parameters of a set of judgments about permissible and unacceptable. The author tests these theoretical achievements on an empirical basis using index, factor, and cluster analyzes. Based on the results of an empirical study conducted in December 2017 by a team of the Sociology Department of V.N. Karazin Kharkiv National University, the author describes the latent structure of knowledge aggregates about the unacceptable. The ratios between the permissible and the unacceptable are demonstrated, and the possible axes of the (un)acceptable for the Kharkovites are highlighted. The internal structure of judgments about the unacceptable in different groups and in relation to various objects of prohibition is investigated. A final conclusion that the multitude of judgments about the (un)acceptable, despite its apparent discontinuity, is a consistent set of judgments internally connected into a single continuum of social knowledge, is formulated. Author describes the limitations of the study associated with the categories of doxa, fabrication and social construction.

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